Catalytically active peptides

ABSTRACT

A catalytically active peptide comprising an imidazole function in position i flanked by at least one functional group to be amidated in position i+3+4k, where k is an integer equal to or higher than −1 or in position i−4−4n, wherein n is an integer equal to or higher than 0, characterized in that it also comprises at least one activating group in position i+4+4n or i−3−4n, respectively, wherein n is as above.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to novel peptides that an catalyzesite-selective acyl transfer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

So-called acyl transfer reactions involve the transfer of an acyl group(the residue of an organic acid after removal of the carboxyl hydroxygroup) either internally within a chemical species or from one chemicalspecies to another. Examples are amide formation, trans-esterificationand hydrolysis.

It is well known that acyl transfer reactions can be catalyzed byimidazole in aqueous solution, the imidazole, which is a strongnucleophile, forming an intermediary reactive complex with the acylgroup. Also polymer-supported imidazoles have been used as acyl transfercatalysts (see e.g. Skjujins, A., et al., Latv. PSR Zinat. Akad. Vestis,Kim. Ser. 1988 (6), 720-5).

It has further been shown that small peptides containing a histidine(His) residue (an amino acid which contains an imidazolyl group) canhave hydrolytic activity.

Recent progress in designing structural proteins and peptides hasresulted in the preparation of several peptides with substantialcatalytic activity (W. F. DeGrado, Nature, 365, 488 (1993). For example,K. Johnsson et al., Nature, 365, 530 (1993) disclose a shortself-associating Leu-Lys-rich helical peptide that accelerates the rateof decarboxylation by means of a Schiff's base intermediate between asubstrate of oxaloacetate and an amine with an electrostaticallydepressed acid constant (K_(a)). It is mentioned that the secondarystructure is important for the activity.

Nature's enzymes form powerful catalysts by combining residues that areby themselves only modestly reactive. It is therefore not surprising tofind that sites other than those responsible for catalysis also showchemical reactivity and that unexpected reactions can occur on theprotein surface. The combination of His with Lys, for example, in ahelix forms a simple two-residue site where the Lys activates the Hisresidue in its reactions with active esters and the His activates theLys^(1,2). The overall amidation rate of the lysine is at least threeorders of magnitude larger than that in the direct reaction between thelysine and the esters¹.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It has now been found that the above mentioned amidation reaction isconsiderably more complex and has much wider implications than firstexpected since the acyl groups of esters that react with His residues onthe surface of proteins can migrate as covalent intermediates from theinitial reaction site to form amides at the side chains of lysineresidues more than 10 Å away. They undergo a series of transacylationreactions on the protein surface and, as a result, migrate fromhistidines to serines, from serines to serines, and from serines tolysines in pathways that appear to be strictly regulated. In fact, thesituation can be compared to a complex traffic regulation system as thepathways allowed for acyl-group transfer appears to follow rules of highspecificity and directionality. The implications of these acylationreactions in native proteins are that the acyl groups of esters andamides, and perhaps also the corresponding ones of phosphoesters, can begenerated at sites different from the ones where the product iseventually formed. The implications for the chemistry of proteins isthat post-synthetic modifications on a high level of complexity arepossible using folded proteins that do not need to be protected.

The invention thus relates to a catalytically active peptide comprisingan imidazole function in position i flanked by at least one functionalgroup to be amidated in position i+3+4k, where k is an integer equal toor higher than −1 or in position i−4−4n, wherein n is an integer equalto or higher than 0, characterized in that it also comprises at leastone activating group in position i+4+4n or i−3−4−n, respectively,wherein n is as above.

The reaction between a His residue and an ester is a two-step reactionwhere the first and rate-limiting step is the formation of an acylintermediate under the release of the leaving group. In the second stepthe acyl intermediate reacts with the most potent nucleophile availableto it. In the reaction between p-nitrophenyl esters and imidazole inaqueous solution, a model reaction for the His catalyzed one, thereaction product is the carboxylic acid and the reaction is hydrolysis.In the presence of 10 vol % trifluoroethanol the reaction product is thecorresponding trifluoroethyl ester⁴. In folded proteins theintramolecularity of flanking lysine residues make them the most potentnucleophiles even at pH 5, where they are predominantly protonated andthe reaction is an amide at the side chain of the lysine residue^(1,2).The rules for the His-Lys pair were reported previously⁵ and a His inposition i is able to acylate a Lys in position i+4 or i−3 but not inposition i−3, i−4 or i−1. In order to investigate whether lysines couldbe acylated that were more distant, proteins were designed in whichamino acid residues were introduced in between His and Lys residues tomediate acyl transfers.

By using a catalytically active peptide according to the presentinvention it is possible to site-selectively form amide bonds betweenlysine side chains and acyl groups of active esters. Anything that canbe transformed into an active ester will thus be transferable to aspecific position on the surface of a protein or peptide comprising astructure according to the invention. Peptides, proteins, PNAs,carbohydrate derivatives, drugs, inhibitors are examples of suchtransferable substances. Several lysine residues of a protein or peptidewith a structure according to the invention can be acylated, one afterthe other, in a controlled way so that complex sites, or epitopes, canbe designed that Are formed from several different ligands, and theconcept can also be exploited in a combinatorial approach to form alarge number of different binding sites. The binding of a protein orpeptide with a structure according to the invention to a surface by acovalent bond can be accomplished in a controlled way using the samechemical reaction that is used to bind the different ligands.

The bond forming reaction catalyzed by a catalytically active peptideaccording to the invention is used can be performed in an aqueoussolution by adding the active ester to a solution of a protein orpeptide with a structure according to the invention, preferably at pH 6and room temperature. After the reaction is complete, any excess esterand the leaving group are washed away, and a new ester can be added. Theformation of e.g. a complex protein receptor or a binding site can thusbe accomplished using very simple step-wise chemistry, and it does notdepend on the use of expensive or hazardous coupling agents because thereactivity and site selectivity is encoded into the protein or peptidewith a structure according to the invention. The site selectiveincorporation of substituents requires that optimized concentrations ofactive esters are used in the reaction. If a peptide is subjected toprolonged treatment with a large excess of ester then the selectivitywill decrease, but if the peptide is subjected to an optimizedconcentration of ester then the intramolecular competition will ensurethat the optimum yield of selectively functionalized peptide isobtained. The optimum concentrations and reaction times differs betweendifferent lysine side chains because the different geometricalrelationship between His and Lys residues gives rise to acyl transferreactions that are not equal. The experimental conditions described forthe present invention have been standardized for comparison betweendifferent sites and can be further optimized. The introducedsubstituents are also known to influence the incorporation at aneighboring site because of its size and other molecular properties,such as for example charge and polarity. When the protein that has beenbound to a surface by a covalent bond is a homodimer then only one ofthe peptides is covalently linked, and the other peptide can be replacedto form a heterodimer.

The functionalized protein is readily removed from the surface andreplaced with a second one in a very short period of time (a few secondsor minutes), so that a new reaction can be performed.

Examples of targets are proteins and other bio-molecules that areextracted from, e.g., cell lysates.

Combinatorially composed surfaces can then be used in the search of the“unknown proteins” that are not readily predictable form the genes inthe cell, perhaps because they have been posttranslationally modified,so that their function is not predictable from the DNA sequence.

An added value is the capability of constructing tailor-made affinitycolumns form purification and isolation. The receptor or binding sitethat were used for example to find a specific protein from a cell lysatecan be constructed in large enough quantities to be used for itspurification and isolation.

One object of the present invention is to provide a chemical structureelement with improved capability of catalyzing an acyl transferreaction. There is therefore provided a chemical structure elementcomprising backbone structure with a pendant imidazole function.

In one embodiment, the structure element is a molecule, such as apeptide or protein, comprising a function in such a neighboring positionthat it can be site-specifically functionalized through the acyltransfer via the above intermediary complexes.

The catalytically active peptides according to the present invention issuitable for use in an improved method of performing an acyl transfertype reaction using an imidazole based catalyst. There is thereforeprovided an improved method of performing a chemical reaction involvingan acyl transfer mechanism in the presence of an imidazole-basedcatalyst which can form a transition complex with the acyl group.

In a preferred embodiment of the method, the chemical structure elementconstitutes or is part of a larger structure having a functional groupin such a neighboring position that it can be site-specificallyfunctionalized through the acyl transfer via the above intermediarycomplexes.

The catalytically active peptides according to the present invention canbe obtained by a method comprising transforming a host organism with arecombinant DNA construct comprising a vector and a DNA sequenceencoding said protein or peptide, culturing the host organism to expresssaid protein or peptide, and isolating the latter from the culture.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a vectorcomprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding the above protein orpeptide. The invention therefore provides a recombinant DNA constructcomprising a vector and a DNA sequence encoding a protein or peptidewhich constitutes or comprises an imidazole function-containingstructure element as defined above.

In a preferred embodiment of the vector, the DNA sequence also encodes aspecific functional group in a such a neighboring position to theimidazole function that the functional group can be site-specificallyfunctionalized through acyl transfer catalyzed by the imidazolefunction.

Thus, the present invention is based on peptides that increases theimidazole type catalytic activity in acyl transfer reactions byproviding the imidazole function on a backbone structure with a pendantflanking group (or groups) or chain on one or both sides of theimidazole function, which flanking group or groups can interact with theimidazole-acyl complex formed such that the transition complex isstabilized. The reaction rate for the desired acyl transfer reaction,such as an amidation, trans-esterification, hydrolysis or thiolysis,will be increased considerably thereby. While esters are the currentlypreferred substrates, e.g. amide and anhydride substrates can also beused.

The term “imidazole function” is to be interpreted broadly, and is meantto encompass any imidazole-based structure that possesses the desiredcatalytic activity. The imidazole group can consequently be modified invarious ways. An advantageous imidazole function for many purposes isbased on the amino acid histidine α-amino-4-(or 5)-imidazolepropionicacid). One or both of the available carbon atoms of the imidazolefunction can, for example, be independently substituted with alkyl orhalogen. The imidazole group can also be substituted in 1-position withalkyl. Alkyl has preferably 1 to 6 carbon atoms, especially 1 to 4carbon atoms, e.g. methyl or ethyl. Halogen includes fluorine, chlorine,bromine and iodine.

The flanking group or groups can comprise a link or chain of, e.g., 1 to6, preferably 1 to 4 atoms, usually carbon atoms, connected to aterminal functional group or other group capable of the requiredmolecular interaction with the acyl transition complex.

In case the catalytic structure element is a peptide and the imidazolylfunction is part of a histidine residue, the flanking chain or chainscan be pendant proton donating parts of other amino acids, e.g. selectedfrom lysines, ornithines, arginines and/or further histidines.

The chemical structure element supporting the catalytic imidazolylfunction should preferably have some type of rigidity, such as secondarystructure, in order to localize the flanking group or groups withrespect to the imidazolyl function in an optimal geometric relationshipfor the desired transition complex-stabilizing interactions to takeplace. In an advantageous embodiment, the chemical structure element isa so-called designed polypeptide with a stabilized secondary structure,e.g. α-helical coiled coils. Designed helical peptides are, forinstance, described in J. W. Bryson et al., Science, 270, 935 (1995).The structure element is, however, not limited to a peptide. On thecontrary, it can have a variety of compositions readily apparent to theskilled person in the light of the present invention, and can thus beincluded in or be part of other types of structures, such as acarbohydrate, a natural or synthetic polymer, etc. The size of thechemical structure is not either limiting, and it can, e.g., be apeptide of as few as, say, five amino acids. As to the requiredgeometric relationship between imidazole function and flanking group orgroups, a functional arrangement can readily be designed for eachparticular situation by the skilled person after having read the presentdescription.

Depending on the functional moiety of the complex-stabilizing flankingchain or chains, the transition complex can react with such a flankingchain in an intramolecular reaction. Such an intramolecular reaction canbe used for selectively functionalizing peptides, proteins and othermolecules.

It is readily understood that designed polypeptides embodying thepresent invention, such as those mentioned above, can be produced byrecombinant DNA technology (genetic engineering). Such techniques arewell known and to the skilled person and will not be described herein.(It can, for example, be referred to EP-B1-282 042 which discloses thepreparation by recombinant technology of fusion proteins which containneighboring His-residues.)

The above described selectivity of the reaction center can be used tointroduce new functionality in e.g. folded polypeptides. In anintramolecular reaction, the stabilizing flanking group(s) need, ofcourse, not be the one to be functionalized through the acyl transferbut can be another functional group in an appropriate position.

An important aspect of site-selective functionalization is theintroduction of carbohydrates site-selectively into proteins andpeptides. This is accomplished by modifying the carbohydrate in questionto contain an ester function. Carbohydrates play an important role inthe recognition in immunological, inflammatory and other processes. Theycan enhance the immunogenicity of proteins and peptides. They alsoprotect proteins from proteolytic degradation and affect proteinfolding. Site-selective introduction of carbohydrates can therefore beused for antibody production and vaccine development and the systematicstudy of the role of carbohydrates. It can also be used to protect drugsfrom degradation.

The reaction can also be used to introduce residues that will notsurvive under the reaction conditions of peptide synthesis or that willnot be reactive enough due to steric hindrance. Novel branchedpolypeptide structures are also possible if amino acid residues orpeptides can be introduced. Since the histidine is regenerated, it canalso be designed to participate in the active site of an engineeredcatalyst.

The peptide to be functionalized is dissolved in a buffer solution at pH5.85 and the first ester is added at a concentration that has beenestimated from the comparison between the pseudo first-order rateconstant of the peptide catalyzed reaction (calculated from thesecond-order rate constant and the peptide concentration) and thebackground reaction. For example, if the second-order rate constant is0.039 M−1 s−1, then at a peptide concentration of 1 mM, the pseudofirst-order rate constant is 3.9×10−5 s−1, a factor of 3.9 larger thanthat of the background reaction. The fraction of substrate that reactswith the peptide is then at the beginning of the reaction3.9/(1±3.9)=0.8 and the excess ester shall be 25%. However, as thereaction proceeds the concentration of unfunctionalized peptidedecreases and thus the effective pseudo first-order rate constant.Therefore an excess of 60% is used in this case, the magnitude of theexcess being estimated from the theoretical calculation in combinationwith experience from experimental measurements. The reactivities of theester substrates are known from separate kinetic experiments, and whenall the substrate has been consumed a second ester is added which willpredominantly go into the second most reactive site, using the sameprocedure as described above. Then that has been consumed a thirdsubstrate is added, and so on until all the lysine residues to befunctionalized have been saturated. At this stage the peptide ispurified by HPLC as described elsewhere. For some positions excesses ofa factor of ten or so of ester substrate may be necessary to obtain theoptimum incorporation, because the partitioning between hydrolysis andincorporation favors hydrolysis. This fact does not in any way decreasethe site selectivity of the incorporation. On the contrary, it increasesit.

Alternatively, if a substrate ester is insoluble in water, it can beintroduced into the sequence during the solid phase peptide synthesisusing orthogonal protection group strategies. For example, an allylprotection group can be used for a lysine residue which can beselectively removed before the peptide is cleaved from the resin, andthe lysine can be reacted with the hydrophobic substituent usingstandard carbodiimide coupling reagents.

Alternatively, some substituents may require HPLC purification at anintermediate stage of the functionalization, if the chromatographicproperties of multifunctionalized proteins do not differ appreciably.

Alternatively, some substrates may function better at different pHvalues of the buffer. 2,4-dinitrophenyl esters will, for example beincorporated very efficiently at pH 4-5 due to their inherent highreactivity. This will allow the introduction of several esterssimultaneously into the reaction vessel, and the reaction is thencontrolled by a change of pH. For example, a mixture of three esters areadded to a peptide, which is held at pH 4. One ester is a2,4-dinitrophenyl ester, which reacts readily at pH 4 and is thusincorporated at the most reactive Lys. Then the pH is raised to pH 5 andthe N-hydroxsuccinimide ester reacts and is incorporated into the secondmost reactive Lys site. Finally the pH is raised to 6 and thep-nitrophenyl ester is incorporated at the third most reactive site.

Alternatively, the incorporation is performed at the surface of a solidsupport, e.g. a gold plate in a Biacore instrument. Then the firstreaction is used to form a bond between the active ester attached to thesurface using e.g. thiol derivatives that are well known to bind togold, and the most reactive Lys. Then an ester substrate is introducedinto the reaction chamber and reacted to form an amide at the secondmost reactive site, and so on.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a modeled structure of a monomeric hair-pin helix-loop-helixmotif showing the positions of the residues that form the catalyticnetwork; the sequences are those of the peptides described below; thearrows indicate the acyl migration pathways from His-11 to Lys-7,Lys-10, Lys-14 and to Lys-34.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A model protein, the 84-residue helix-loop-helix homodimer described andcharacterized in detail elsewhere^(6,7), FIG. 1, was redesigned to haveSer residues I-3, i+4 and I+8 relative to a His(i), and with Lysresidues in positions that could NOT be acylated directly by theacylimidazole intermediate on the His side chain. The resulting42-residue peptides, given in table II below, were synthesized on aPerSeptive Biosystems Pioneer automated peptide synthesizer using aFmoc-PAL-PEG-PS polymer, standard commercial protocols and Fmocprotection group chemistry, purified using reversed phase HPLC on asemipreparative Kromasil column using 36-38% isopropanol in 0.1%trifluoroacetic acid and identified using electrospray mass spectrometry(ESMS). The mean residue ellipticities at 222 nm and 300 μMconcentration were measured and typical values were −19000 degcm²dmol⁻¹. The geometric relationship between the amino acids is shownin FIG. 1. The proteins at 1 mM concentration in aqueous solution and pH5.1 were reacted with an excess, typically 40-60%, of mono-p-nitrophenylfumarate (I). The excess amounts of substrate were needed sincebackground hydrolysis wastes some of the ester, and the excess amountwas estimated from the relative magnitudes of the second-order rateconstants⁸, Table 1. The resulting proteins were analyzed by HPLC, usinganalytical columns, and by ESMS (MW of the monomeric peptide S-I forexample is 4333, found 4333, and that of the correspondingmono-fumarylated peptide is 4431, found 4431), with and without priortryptic cleavage to identify the site of amidation as describedearlier². The fragments expected upon trypsin cleavage are well definedand informative as the peptide is cleaved on the C-terminal side ofbasic residues, unless the side chain has been modified by fumarylationin which case it is not cleaved at that residue.

TABLE I Second-order rate constants for self-catalyzed reactions ofvarious peptide with mono-p-nitrophenyl fumarate at pH 5.85 and 298 K.Peptide K₂/(M⁻¹s⁻¹) S-I 3.9 × 10⁻² S-II 3.9 × 10⁻² S-III 7.1 × 10⁻² S-IV7.5 × 10⁻² 4-methyl 1.7 × 10⁻² imidazole uncat (s⁻¹) 1.0 × 10⁻⁵

TABLE II The amino acid residues in the positions marked in bold text inthe sequence below (SEQ. ID. No.1) were altered for the peptides asshown below.    1                     11      25        19Ac-N-A-A-D-Nle-E-A-X-I-K-H-L-A-X-X-Nle-A-X-X                                       20    23                                      -G-P-V-D    42                34                  24NH₂-G-A-R-A-F-A-E-F-X-X-A-L-Q-E-A-Nle-Q-A-A Peptide Pos 8 Pos 14 Pos 15Pos 18 Pos 19 Pos 33 Pos 34 S-I A E S A K K Orn (SEQ. ID. No. 2) S-II SE A A K K Orn (SEQ. ID. No. 3) S-III A K S A K K Orn (SEQ. ID. No. 4)S-IIIb A K S A K K A (SEQ. ID. No. 5) S-IIIc A K A A K K A (SEQ. ID. No.6) S-IV S K A A K K Orn (SEQ. ID. No. 7) S-VIII A E S K S K A (SEQ. ID.No. 8) S-IX A E S K A K A (SEQ. ID. No. 9) S-X A E A A K K S (SEQ. ID.No. 10) S-XII S E A A K K A (SEQ. ID. No. 11)

The sequences of these peptides are given in the appended sequencelisting.

As described above, if His(i) is flanked by Lys (i+4) then Lys (i+4) isexclusively amidated under the reaction conditions used here. If a Hisis flanked by a lysine residue in a neighboring helix in such aconformation that the Lys has a similar geometric relationship to theHis, as has a Lys(i+4) or Lys(i−3) to a His(i), then this Lys will beamidated by the His in a direct acylation reaction. In the sequences S-I(SEQ. ID. No. 2), S-II (SEQ. ID. No. 3), S-III (SEQ. ID. No. 4) and S-IV(SEQ. ID. No. 7) Orn-34 occupies such a position and in the absence of aLys in position 150 nm-34 will be preferentially amidated by His-11.

When His-11 was flanked by Ser-15 As in S-I (SEQ. ID. No. 2), FIG. 1,the degree of acylation of Orn-34 was enhanced considerably incomparison with that obtained with the sequence S-II (SEQ. ID. No. 3),where the Ser was in position 8, showing that acylation is mediated bySer-15. In these peptides no other Lys residues WERE in positions toaccept acyl groups by direct transfer from His-11, and no amidations ofresidues other than Orn-34 were observed. When His-11 was flanked byLys-14, in the peptide S-IV, FIG. 1, in an i, i+3 configuration, noacylation of Lys-14 was found in agreement with the earlier report thati, i+3 configurations do not lead to amidation⁵. However, when the His-1Lys-14 pair was supplemented by Ser-15, in the peptide S-III, amidationof Lys-14 was obtained, showing that Ser-15 mediated the transacylationreaction. Ser-15 can be conceived of as playing several roles incatalyzing the amidation of Lys-14. However, the most likely is that itis acylated by the acylimidazole to form an, ester intermediate, that issubsequently trapped by Lys-14 in an intramolecular acyl-transferreaction. Alternatively, Ser-15 can simply hydrogen bond to thedeveloping oxyanion in the transition state of the amidation reaction oraccept a hydrogen bond from Lys-14 and increase the population ofconformers here Lys-14 is in a reactive conformation. However, the lowbinding energy of hydrogen bonds involving uncharged species in aqueoussolution⁹ makes both of these alternative explanations less likely.Consequently, if the flanking residue of a His(i) is a serine (i+4) thenthe acyl group is captured by the hydroxyl group to form an ester, butas the ester is not the thermodynamically most stable species the acylgroup migrates further to finally “park” at the side chain of a lysine(i+3 relative to the His, i−1 relative to the Ser) or it is hydrolyzedif no Lys is available for acylation.

Orn-34 is preferentially amidated by His-11 in S-I, S-II, s-III and S-IVso Orn-34 was replaced by Ala in the sequences S-IIIb and S-IIIc. S-IIIbcontains Ser-15 whereas in S-IIIc Ser-15 has been replaced by Ala-15. InS-IIIb, Lys-10 and Lys-14 are amidated, whereas in S-IIIc amidation ofLys-10 and Lys-14 is not detected.

In order to probe whether more extended serine pathways could be found,Ser-15 was supplemented by a Ser-19, i.e. i+8 relative to the histidine,while Lys-14 was replaced by a glutamate, to form the peptide S-VIII,FIG. 1. Since Ser-15 can function as an acylating agent for Lys-14, i.e.in an i, i−1 pathway as described above, but probably not in an i, i+3pathway, acyl migration from Ser-15 to Ser-19 is necessary in order toaccomplish amidation via Ser-19. When the protein is reacted with 1under the conditions described above, acylation of Lys-10 is observedwhen Ser-19 is incorporated (S-VIII) but abolished when Ser-19 isreplaced by Ala (S-IX). Consequently, acyl groups can migrate fromserine to serine in helical segments in an i, i+4 pathway. Acyl groupscan therefore migrate long distances over protein surfaces or in proteincavities provided that the appropriate groups are organized in a way toaccommodate the structural requirements for intramoleculartransesterification.

In the peptide S-XII Ser-8 has been incorporated, as well as Lys-7, andefficient amidation of Lys-7 was observed, demonstration a His (i),Ser(i−3), Lys(i−4) pathway.

The migration of acyl groups over long distances has thus beendemonstrated in model proteins using His-Ser, Ser-Ser and Ser-Lyspathways, in addition to the His-Lys pathways reported earlier, butother pathways axe clearly possible. The complexity and significance ofthis aryl-transfer reaction has only begun to become unraveled as thepotential of tyrosines, threonines, cysteines and arginines in providingadditional pathways has not been analyzed. The transfer pathways fromHis to Ser, from Ser to Lys and between other residues also have notbeen fully mapped. In addition, the determination of which groups can betransferred remains to be demonstrated. The reaction suggests that acylintermediates in proteolytic cleavage of peptides and esters can escapenucleophiles by fast migration to other sites where the hydrolysisreaction is the most efficient. It also suggests that this reaction canbe used to posttranslationally modify proteins and that perhapsphosphoryl groups can be transferred over protein surfaces to the finalsite of protein-phosphorylation.

The rate of transacylation cannot be measured as it is not ratelimiting, but the degree of amidation of each available side chain isclearly dependent on the relative magnitude of its rate of acylationsuggesting that different side chains can be amidated in a stepwisefashion determined by the relative geometries, distances, pKa values etcof each site. The reactivity of the protein site is controlled by thepKa values of the His residues¹⁰ and by the reactivity of the leavinggroup¹¹ but the partitioning of acyl groups between different sites isdetermined by the structure of the protein. Hydrolysis also competeswith intramolecular acyl migration and a fraction of the reactants isclearly lost, although a very small one.

For organic chemists the discovered reaction provides the opportunity touse a simple one-step reaction in aqueous solution to form new proteinswith tailor made properties. The introduction of several ligands in acontrolled way that recognize and bind known or unknown proteins canprove to be an important one in the upcoming era of proteomics.

REFERENCES

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1. A catalytically active peptide comprising histidine in position iflanked by at least one lysine, ornithine or diaminobutyric acid residueto be amidated in position i+3+4k, where k is −1, 0 or 2, or in positioni−4−4−n, wherein n is 0, 1 or 2, characterized in that it also comprisesat least one activating group constituted by serine, threonine, tyrosineor cysteine in position i+4+4n or i−3−4−n, respectively, wherein n is asabove.
 2. A peptide with any of SEQ. ID. Nos. 1-11 given in the appendedsequence listing.
 3. A peptide with SEQ. ID. No. 2, SEQ. ID. No. 4, SEQ.ID. No. 5, SEQ. ID. No. 8, SEQ. ID. No. 10 or SEQ. ID. No. 11 given inthe appended sequence listing.
 4. A active polypeptide with ahelix-loop-helix configuration comprising, as catalytically active part,a peptide according to any one of the claims 1-3.
 5. Use of a peptideaccording to any one of the claims 1-3 or a polypeptide according toclaim 4 in a method for site-selective acyl transfer in or amidation offolded polypeptides and proteins.
 6. Use of a peptide according to anyone of the claims 1-3 or a polypeptide according to claim 4 inprotection of proteins from proteolytic degradation.
 7. Use of a peptideaccording to any one of the claims 1-3 or a polypeptide according toclaim 4 in protein folding.
 8. Use of a peptide according to any one ofthe claims 1-3 or a polypeptide according to claim 4 in vaccinedevelopment.
 9. Use of a peptide according to any one of the claims 1-3or a polypeptide according to claim 4 in construction of antagonists forcomponents of the immune system.
 10. Use of a peptide according to anyone of the claims 1-3 or a polypeptide according to claim 4 inconstruction of agonists for components of the immune system.
 11. Use ofa peptide according to any one of the claims 1-3 or a polypeptideaccording to claim 4 in production of antibodies.